Raising and Deploying Resources and Expertise for Emergency Repair and Protection

The third component of the initiative involved raising and deploying funding resources and expertise for the protection, conservation, and management of archaeological and architectural sites in Iraq.

In 2009, the WMF launched the Future of Babylon Project, a collaboration with the SBAH with funding through the U.S. Department of State, to develop a site management and conservation plan for the archaeological site of Babylon. The GCI collected a significant amount of historic and more recent documentation about the site to support this project.

Support Provided

In 2004 two grants were awarded by the Iraq initiative for site protection. One was given to the Massachusetts College of Art for the reinstallation of protective roofing over the Palace of Sennacherib in the archaeological site at Nineveh, which was looted during the 2003 war. The second grant went to the American Association for Research in Baghdad for the protection of archaeological sites in central Iraq from looting in the aftermath of the 2003 war.

View inside the Palace of Sennacherib at the ancient site of Nineveh in northern Iraq showing damaged relief slabs exposed to the elements after looters removed protective roofing in 2003. Nineveh was the royal capital of the Assyrian Empire in the 7th century BC. Photo: Courtesy of Joanne Farchakh-Bajjaly.

View of the Palace of Sennacherib with protective roofing restored in 2004 through a grant provided by the GCI-WMF Iraq Initiative. Photo: Courtesy of John Russell.